We seek to buy growing, profitable, and well-capitalized businesses at reasonable prices. The habit of relating quality to value is central to the WCA equity investing process.
A comprehensive suite of asset allocation portfolios focused on matching investment objectives with risk tolerance. Both passive and active strategies are offered.
This portfolio seeks to generate a stream of income from a portfolio of 30 investment-grade corporate bonds. The portfolio is constructed as a “ladder” with maturities spanning 10 years.
Global markets are adjusting to a changing environment shaped by geopolitical conflict, higher energy costs, and tightening credit conditions. Credit spreads widened during the first quarter as well. Both factors helped contribute to some downward pressure on our WCA Barometer and a modest reduction in equity exposure in tactical portfolios. These developments are occurring against a broader backdrop of transition away from the zero-interest-rate world toward a higher cost-of-capital environment. Our tactical positioning is updated as market leadership shifts, risks change, and as tactical discipline becomes more important. We continue to emphasize diversification, flexibility, and disciplined portfolio positioning as conditions…
The investment industry often frames success as beating the S&P 500 or one of its style indices such as Value or Growth. However, most financial advisors and their clients are not trying to beat an index; they are trying to grow their wealth, generate income, and avoid large losses. Those are very different objectives, and they require a different way of thinking about benchmarks and portfolio construction. It has been our experience that most advisors and investors we work with ask for a seemingly simple thing which is to “make money and try not to lose it.” Somehow, this simple…
It is now all about earnings. Surging capital spending has been the main driver of profit expectations and the stock market. Despite all the worry about oil, Iran, stagflation, and AI Disruption, the forward view of earnings is still strong and the S&P 500 trades at a higher than average multiple of expected earnings. Since earnings growth has driven about two-thirds of the gain in the S&P 500 post 2019 and almost all of the gain since the end of 2024, what happens over the upcoming earnings season should be of utmost importance (see Chart A). Expectations are high as…